I had a split-system air-conditioning unit installed in my garage (see previous blog post for installation of the wiring) and during installation my neighbor complained that the external unit is unsightly and will be too noisy for them along with the outrageous possibility that it may blow warm air in to their back yard!

Well, I am not one to go about disrupting peoples yards biosphere, so I decided to make a board and place it beside the unit so that it doesn’t look quite as ugly for them. Truth is I didn’t need to do that but I figured my apathy at the time was a little unfair so I may as well build them something to keep them happy(ish).
I only had MDF at the time and I wasn’t prepared to spend any money on this. So I painted it with some very thick (used for textured paint) external paint. Enough coats to prevent the wood from absorbing water and expanding. I write this post 5 months after the installation and I checked the board a week ago, there is no expanding. So the paint seems to be doing the trick. I doubt the board will last much longer than a couple of years though. I plan on removing the board once it has expanded and not replacing it. By then the nieghbors should either be appeased or dead (she is getting on with age).